Apparatus for preparing cotton fibers.



W. H. HARRISS.

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON FIBERS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20, 1900.

1,], 17,567, Patented Nov. 17, 1914.

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS W. H. HARRISS.

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON FIBERS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20, 1009.

1,117,567, Patented N0v.17,1914.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR BY W? zATToR Efl W. H. HARRISS.

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON FIBERS.

APPLIGATION FILED JULY 20, 1009.

1,117,567. Patented N0v.17,1914.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

/ \AQIESSESZ INVENTOR W. H. HARRISS.

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON FIBERS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20, 1909.

1,1 17,567, Patented Nov. 17, 1914.

6 SHEBTS-SHEET 4.

"TIL m 1 W 8 H H b O 1, I a} T o n l l ,F

l T I 5 x\ I L 3\ R it i- 21 I, ll

W. H. HARRISS.

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON FIBERS.

APPLICATION TILED JULY 20, 1909.

INVENTOR yMiZ Mw 4 ATHSKYS fig Patented Nov. 17, 1914.

6 SHEETSSHBET 6.

BY I W WITNESSES:

UNITE W T orsion,

WILLIAM H. HARRISS, OF PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO EMPIREDUPLEX GIN COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF ARIZONA.

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON FIBERS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM H. Hanniss, a citizen of the United Statesof America, and. a resident of Pawtucliet, county of I Providence, andState of Rhode Island,have

invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for PreparingCotton Fibers, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for preparing cottonfibers, and particularly to that class of cotton treating machineryincluded generally in the term preparatory machinery in which cottonfibers received from the gin after a ginning operation are preparedprior to their being twisted and drawn into threads. In my presentapparatus 1. take cotton fibers directly from the gin in which the rawcotton has been'operated upon to remove the seeds, and thereuponimmediately act upon the fibers to straighten them out and parallelizethem. I -then form them into a lap while in this condition, and finallyroll them up into the form of-a lap roll orbale. I preferably straightenand parallelize the fibers'by some form of apparatus, such for instance,as a lickerin, by which they are also cleaned, that ,is to say, brokenpieces of seed, leafy trash, and the like, are

removed therefrom, and I also preferably pass the fibers through drawingrolls which tend further to straighten and parallelize them and tostretchthem prior to the final rolling up of the lap. The bale or laproll thus formed is ready to be placed directly in a carding or combingmachine.

- It has been common in the past to gin the cottonat or near the placewhere the cotton is grown, the product from the gin being formed into abale in which form it is shipped to a cotton mill to be later treated.The fibers as they are receivedv from the gin usually pass to a gincondenser in which they are collectedtogether in close relation and arethen usually pressed together in a hydraulic press so as to reduce thesize of the-bale in proportion to its weight, the fibers being coveredwith a bagging and then held'in their compressed condition by metallicties or straps. When received at the mill the first step is disbaling,that is, the ties and bags are removed; next the bale is broken up,--usual1y by hand; next'it' is Specification of Letters Patent.

' Application filed July 20, 1909.

Patented Nov. 17, 1914. Serial No. 508,601.

sure, to storage bins where it is stored for the purpose of aging it.The pressure to which the fibers are subjected in the bale press has theeffect of bending and distorting the fibers, and owing to the length oftime during which the fibers usually remain in the bale the fibers areapt to become set in their bent condition,-that is to say, they do notreadily straighten out after disbaling. This necessitates their beingstored for a long time in a loose condition in'the bins whereby thefibers can gradually straighten out. After the fibers have been agedthey are now presented to machines known as self feeders and openers.These machines tend to open outthe fibers and to feed a predeterminedregular quantity forward for the next ste From the self. feeders andopeners the bets go to a breaker lapper in which machine the cotton isacted upon by rapidly revolving beater arms to further separate thefibers and clean them, and in this machine they are then rolled andpressed into the form of a lap and finally rolled up into.

a rolled lap form. A plurality of these laps (four more or less) arethen presented in a machine known as an intermediate lapper in which theseveral laps are acted upon by similar beater arms so as to furtherclean them, the fibers then being formed again into a single lap. Thencethe laps are treated in a finisher lapper, the product therefrom being'arolled up lap which now ready for the carding machine. The lap resultingfrom the foregoing operations is, however, a sheet of matted fiberswhich cross and re-cross each other and the straightening orparallelizing of the fibers which is absolutely necessary to the finalproduct, takes place in the carding or combing machine. It is, moreover,a. fact that many of; the foregoing o )erations are exceedinglyinjurious to the h ers, the beater arms in the breaker lappcr, theintermediate lap 381., and the finishing lapper having the 0 set ofbreaking, rupturing, and bending the fibers so that it is necessary inproducing a high grade material to reject a large proportion of thofibers in the carding machine, and it is common to reject as high asfifty per cent. of the product of the carding machine such rejectedportion being absolute waste so far as the manufacture of highgradegpodsin concerned. Again, the bendto avoid the injury to the fiberswhich re- 1 side elevation of such an apparatus.

sults from the foregoing method of operation, and alsotoreduce verylargely the cost of handling the fibers by eliminatino a large number ofthe steps which have hitherto been employed in accordance with theforegoing, and I attain this object by-straightening, cleaning andparallelizing the fibers as they come from the gin and forming themdirectly into arolled lap in which condition I cover them with asuitable bale cover and then ship themdirectly to the mill where theyare ready to be received by the carding or combing machine.

A further object of my invention is to re duce the danger from fire. Theexposure of a large quantity of the fibers in a loose condition in theaging bins has been productive in the past of a great many fires, cottonin this condition being extremely infiammable,so much so that the cottonmills have been compelled to figure on an'annual loss, by fire, or thepayment of a very heavy fire insurance premium,-and as by my presentmethod of handling the fibers this aging step becomes unnecessary, thisparticular danger is eliminated.

In order that my invention may be fully understood, 1 will now proceedto describe an apparatus constituting an embodiment thereof, and willthen point out the novel features in claims. In the drawings: Figure lis a view in Fig. 2 is a view in central vertical longitudinal sec tiontherethrough. Fig. 3 is a top view of the same. Fig. l is a view intransverse section therethrough, the plane of section being takensubstantially upon the line 44 of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a transversesectional view upon an enlarged scale of the licker-in. Fig. 6 is adetail view in transverse section of a modified form of doifing devicefor the licker-in. Fig. 7 is a view in central longitudinal section of amodified form of the apparatus. v

"n the apparatus illustrated in the first five figures the cotton isreceived in a gin 10 by which the seeds are removed and the lint orcotton fibers delivered upon a board 11. The board llforms one wall ofthe feed box 12 of a self-feeder. This self-feeder may comprise theusuallattice conveyer 13 for feeding the cotton forward, the spikedlattice elevator 14 for carrying the fibers upward, the lattice evener15' for scraping ofi surplus fibers, a clearer 16 for removing the Thiscombing device may conveniently be a licke-r-inof the well known formsuch asis commonly employed in a carding machine, comprising a rollerhaving a plurality of parallel rows ot fiat-sided sharp-pointed teeth20' in staggered relation to one another, with their sides at rightangles to the axis of the roller 20, mote knives 21, and grids 22. Afluted feed roll 23 may be conveniently employed to feed the material tothe licker-in, and a doiier 24- of any convenient form may also beemployed for insuring the removal of the fibers from the teeth of thelicker-in. The product is then fed with its fibers in'their straightenedparallel condi tion, directly into a lap "forming device which comprisesthe doli'er roll 24 and a feed roll 25, thence along a feed board 26 tothe fingers of an automatic evener 27, and thence preferably to one ormore sets of drawingrolls 28; thence the product passes throughcondenser rolls 29 to rolls 30 upon which the lap supported and by whichI it is rolled up. The self-feeder is designed to feed an even quantityof the fibers in loose sheet form, just as they are received from thegin, to the licker-in, a certain amount of cleaning taking place duringthe operation in a manner Well known. The lickerin operates to comb,straighten, and arrange the fibers in parallelism, delivering the fibersin sheet form upon the feed board 26 in-straightened and parallelcondition. The licker-in also serves to clean the fibers, the motes andlarger portions of refuse being removed by the mote knives, and thedust, etc., being filtered through-the grids to be finally carried awayby a conveyor 31. The drawing rolls 28 act to further straighten andparallelize the fibers, the relative speed oi the rollers beingcontrolled by-the evener 27. fingers 32 which press the sheet of fibersagainst a roller 33. These fingers 32 are pivoted at 34 and are providedwith arms 35 which are connected through a series of yokes 36 (see Fig.4:) with a weighted lever 37, the latter being connected by suitablelinks and levers with a speed changing device comprising a belt shipper38, a belt 39, and cone pulleys 4-0-41. The cone pulley 41 is driven bysuitable belt connections from the main driving shaft of the apparatuswhile the pulley 40 is mounted upon the shaft of the forward set ofdrawing rollers 28. When the thickness of the sheet of fibers which"passes between the fingers 32 and the The evcner comprises a pluralityof roller 33 increases, the fingers 32 are depressed, the yokes 36 arelifted, and the lever 37 is operated to move the belt shipping device tothe left as shown in Fig. 4, whereby to carry the belt over to thelarger portion of the pulley 41 and over the smaller portion of thepulley 40. This will increase the speed of drive of the forward set ofdrawing rolls with relation to the speed of drive of the rearward set,so as to place a greater draft upon the sheet and thereby to stretch thesheet and reduce the thickness thereof. The compression rolls 29 and therolling up rolls are connected with the forward set of drawing rolls b,means of a train of gearing 42, whereby tie lap is taken up and isrolled up in the roll form at the proper rate of speed regulated inaccordance with the speed at which the last set of drawing rollsdelivers it.

The first set of drawing rolls, the lickerin, the gin, and theself-feeder are all driven from a suitable source at the proper relativespeeds, the shafts of the various apparatus i being preferably connectedby belts and gearing for the purpose of maintaining such relation. Theself-feeder is, however, preferably provided with a clutch 4:3 by meansof which it may be disconnected from driving relation with the otherparts, at will. This is for the reason that While it is advantageous tocontinue the running of the gin so as to get the utmost capacitytherefrom it is necessary to occasionally stop the delivery of fiberswhen a complete lap roll has been formed so that such lap roll may beremoved and a rod, bar,.or core inserted for the starting up of a freshlap roll. As

' it is entirely immaterial whether or not the licker-in, drawing rolls,and compression rolls operate during the time the self-feeder isstationary because of the reason that no material will be fed thereto atsuch times, I have shown no means for disconnecting the same when theself-feeder is stopped, but it is, of course, obvious that clutches forconnecting and disconnecting the various parts may be employed whereverthey are thought to be necessary or desirable. I have however shown sucha clutch at 44: for throwing the rolls 30 out of driving relation sothat they may be stopped at will without stopping the rest of themechanism. When the self-feeder is stopped the product from the ginwill, of course, pile up in the feed box thereof, but the feed box isintended to have such a capacity as to take care of all the product ofthe gin, the feeding mechanism being arranged so as to feed fibers outslightly faster than they are received therein from the gin so as tocompensate for the extra. material fed thereto while the gin is workingand the feeding mechanism is idle.

To insure the dotting of the material from the licker-in so that thesame Will be properly delivered 11 on the feed board 26 in the form of alap, tie dofi'er 24: may be run at a slightly greater surface speed thanthat of the licker-in.

In Fig. 6 I have shown a slightly modified form of the doiling means inwhich the member corresponding to the doifer roll 24; of Fig. 2 is shownas a brush 45 and the material is deposited from the lickcr-in teethupon a traveling lattice 4.6 to pass thence between the feed rolls 24and 25. It is, of course, obvious that any suitable form of dottingmechanism may be employed.

In Fig. 7 I have shown a modified structure of the entire a paratus inwhich the self-feeder is omitte In certain forms of cotton gin, such,for instance, as in the gin known. on the market to-day as the Em )ireduplex. gin, the fibers are not only do ivercd quite uniformly but in anunusually clean condition,--this bein especially true where the rawcotton is we I cleaned before it is presented to the gin. \Vhere theproduct issubstantially uniform it may be delivered directly to thelicker-in or other combing device though, of course, in such case itwill be necessary to stop the gin at the time of completion of one laproll and the commencement of a new one. In Fig. 7, 47 designates aduplex gin in which the delivery to the licker-in is made from twoginning rollers 48 and -19, the said ginning rollers being both arrangedfor co-action with a single stripping member 50. The gin -17 is shown asrovided with two sets of such ginning rolcrs and stripping member,oneupon either side of a centralline therethrough. One set, however, onlyare intended to be employed with the apparatus shown in Fig. 7, theother set being designed for employment with a duplicate apparatus whichmay be disposed to the right of the mechanism shown in Fig. 7, such anarrangement being economical of floor space, power, and attendance.

The lap roll after having been removed from this apparatus is ready tobe inserted directly in a carding or combing machine, and it will bereadily understood that because of the fact that the fibers have alreadybeen straightened and parallelized, very much less work is imposed uponthe carding machine than is at present the case where the lap rollconsists ofa mass of crossed and unstraightened fibers. I make no claim,however, in the present a plication to the particular form of lap whichis produced nor to the method or process of producing it, the sameforming the subject matter of a separate application co-pendingherewith.

\Vhat I claim is:

1. In apparatus for preparing cotton fibers, the combination with meansfor feeding cotton fibers in a conglomerate condition to a rotarymember, having means thereon for combing, straightening, and arrangingthe fibers in parallelism, of a lap forming means comprising a pair ofrolls, a draft roll for operating upon the product delivered from thelap forming rolls, and an automatic evener governed by the thickness ofthe lap of fibers for regulating the relative rate of rotation of thelap forming rolls and of the draft rolls.

2. In an apparatus for preparing cotton fibers, the combination withmeans for feeding cotton fibers in a conglomerate condition to a rotarymember having a plurality of parallel rows of pointed teeth thereon instaggered relation to one another for combing, straightening andarranging the fibers in parallelism, of a lap forming means comprisingthe doller roll operating at surface speed which differs from that ofthe rotary member and a feeder rollassociated therewith, a plurality ofpairs of draft rolls for operating upon the product delivered from thelap forming rolls, and an automatic evener governed by the thickness ofthe lap for regulating the differential speed of rotation of the lapforming rolls and also the speed of rotation of the draft rolls.

3. In apparatus for preparing cotton fibers, the combination with arotary member provided with means for combing, straightening andparallelizing the fibers and feeding them forward, of a lap formingmeans adapted to receive the fibers from the rotary member comprising adoffer roll arrangedto operate ata surface speed which is slightlyhigher than that of the rotary is slightly higher than that of therotary member and a feed roll associatedtherewith, draft rolls and anautomatic evener for regulating relative speed of rotation of the lapforming rolls and the draft rolls.

5. In apparatus for preparing cotton fibersthe combination with a rotarymember provided with means for combing, straightening and parallelizingthe fibers and feeding them forward, of a lap forming means adaptedto-receive the fibers from the rotary member comprising a dofi'er rollarranged to operate at a surface speed which is slightly. higher thanthatof the rotary member and afeed roll associated therewith, aplurality of pairs of draft-rolls located-beyond the lap forming meansand an automatic evener for regulating the speed of one pair ofdraftrolls.

WILLIAJM H. HARRISS.

VV'itnesses E. V. SUTTON, CLARA E. NERR;

